Gigabyte Z87X-UD7 TH Motherboard

Introduction

The Gigabyte Z87X-UD7 TH is a high-end socket LGA1150 motherboard targeted for the fourth-generation Core i processors, coming with two Thunderbolt 2 ports, IEEE 802.11ac interface, five PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (four of them can be used at the same time), overclocking buttons, and more. Check it out!

The Intel Z87 chipset provides two important upgrades compared to its predecessor, the Z77: six USB 3.0 ports instead of four and six SATA-600 ports instead of only two. Another important difference between the two chipsets is where the video outputs of the motherboard are connected. While with both chipsets the video is generated by the CPU, on the Z77 the video signal was routed to the chipset, and the video outputs were connected to the chipset. On the Z87 chipset, the video outputs are connected directly to the processor. Both chipsets support up to three independent video monitors. The Z87 supports all other features provided by the Z77, such as Smart Response (installing an SSD as a cache for the main hard drive), Smart Connect (allowing the computer to receive emails and refresh webpages while it is in sleep mode), and Rapid Start (faster boot times) technologies.

You can see the Gigabyte Z87X-UD7 TH motherboard in Figure 1. It uses the E-ATX form factor, measuring 12” x 10.4” (305 x 264 mm).